Ancient Greek Philosophy - Aristotle Flashcards
what are the four causes
Material, efficient, formal and final
What is the material cause?
the things out of which an object is created
What is the efficient cause?
the agent that brings something into existence
What is the formal cause?
the characteristics of an object which allow it to be identified
what is the final cause?
the aim for which an object is created
What were Aristotle’s key observations?
• Nothing comes from nothing
• The world exists in a process of change
• change occurs in two ways
What is potentiality?
The possibility of something becoming something else
What is actuality?
The fulfilment of a possibility in its fullest sense
What is ‘nothing comes from nothing’ in Latin?
Ex nihilo nihil fit
What was the word Aristotle used to mean cause?
Aition
What is Aristotle’s cause for the universe?
The prime mover
What cause is the prime mover?
final
Aristotle’s view on infinity
He postulated the impossibility if infinity suggesting there is a final cause to all causes: the prime mover.
What is the prime mover?
A transcendent necessary being that is unmoved and has not been acted upon against any other agent. It is unaware of its existence and only contemplates itself.
An example of how things attract things without moving themselves
A moth to a flame
The flame doesn’t physically move the moth but it is attracted to the flame and moves itself.
How does moth analogy relate to the prime mover?
The prime mover like the moth doesn’t move but us contingent beings gravitate to it and are caused to move by the prime mover without any personal involvement.
Is the prime mover aware of the motion it causes
No
The prime mover is pure ….
Actuality
What is pure actuality?
It has no telos ability to become something else
Strengths of the prime mover
- Satisfactory explanation for evil – has no claims to be omnibenevolent so has no responsibility to stop it, it is unaware of evil.
- Some evidence for necessary beings- energy
- anscombe - magician quote
Weaknesses of the prime mover
- Illogical leap to assumes because we have a cause the universe has a cause – fallacy of composition - bertrand russel
- No sufficient evidence - hume
- Aristotle is suffering an existential crisis – trying to find meaning where there isn’t any
- He dismisses the possibility for infinity – numbers, we have no reason to believe infinity does or doesn’t exist so shouldn’t base our theory on it
- fallacy of affirming the concequent
Flaws of the concept that everything has a cause
• Quantum physics and atomic decay suggests there are uncaused things
• Flaw within the formal causes – if a human is missing a leg (a predicate for humans) that doesn’t make them any less human
Strengths of the concept that everything has a cause
- He used inductive reasoning, we can observe things have causes
- Anscombe quote
- natural theologians use the idea that the world has a point of contact with God that means we can understand him - aritotole does soething similar
Strengths on empiricism and essential ideas of theory
• Uses modern thinking as society becomes more secular observation-based knowledge is favoured especially in science
• We can observe material things having a cause – chair
weaknesses on empiricism and essential ideas of theory
• Plato allegory of the cave
• Descartes – if we a put a stick in water it appears bent showing senses can’t be trusted
• Arrogant to assume humans have the intelligence to observe everything and understand it.
what are the processes of change?
potentiality and actuality
how did Aristotle define change?
potentiallity and actuality
what is aristotles use of teleology?
telos = purpose
everything has a purpose in the world - this its it final cause
the prime mover is the telos of the world
what is teleology?
the explanation of phenomena in terms of the purpose they serve
how did motion lead to the prime mover?
- aristotle had a geocentric world view
- stars etc move around the earth
- yet motion requires a cause and how do things continue to move because this motion slow down
- there cannot be a regression otherwise motion wouldnt have began
- so must be a prime mover
why can prime mover not be matter
because matter changes and they are pure actuality
what is the soul?
soul is the formal cause of the body
for aristotle how do we go from cause to effect?
there are a process of 4 causes
effect / actuality only occures if these 4 conditions are met
for example, a seed only grows into its potential of a tree if it has water and sunlight etc
criticism about purpose
francis bacon -> rejects telos regarding it a metaphysical issue, modern science can explain change without an apparent sense of purpore
dawkins - no evidence of telos
sartre - rejects telos, existence proceeds essence, fabricated notion of telos due to fear
newton
Newton’s rejection of Aristotle’s basis for the prime mover
Newton proved that Aristotle was wrong to think that motion runs out. Actually, motion (kinetic energy) just transfers into another type of energy.
If you throw a ball in outer space it will just continue moving potentially forever.
So, the stars/planets don’t need some special explanation like a prime mover to explain why they continue to move.
